One of the most brilliant qualities of the Bengaluru Bulls skipper Rohit Kumar is how honest and humble he is. Time and again, he has not shied away from admitting clearly what went wrong on his part.

Rohit can be devastating when on song as evidenced by the fact that he won the Most Valuable Player award for the Patna Pirates in his debut season in the Pro Kabaddi League. For his current team, the Bengaluru Bulls, he is their most dependable raider. But when things do not go as expected, Rohit never backs away from taking responsibility for it.

On Saturday evening at the Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium in Ranchi, the Bengaluru Bulls looked to be heading for a win for much of the match as they kept Rahul Chaudhari’s Telugu Titans some distance away. In the end, though, it ended with a bitter taste in the mouth for Rohit’s men as the yellow brigade levelled it at 26-26.

With disappointment writ large on his face, the soft-spoken Rohit refused to blame it on Ajay Kumar, whose unsuccessful attempt in the final do-or-die raid conceded a valuable point to Chaudhari’s men.

Rohit repeatedly singled himself out as the one who should be held accountable for what transpired. He emphasized on the four super tackles that were inflicted on him and pointed them out as the sole reason for his team not being able to finish on a victorious note.

“Ajay had a doubt in his mind. He did not look at the scoreboard and thought that the team was leading by two points. But I am fully responsible for the loss tonight. I was super tackled four times, otherwise, we would have won.”

Elaborating on it further, Rohit added: “I acted against the warnings of the coach. I was adamant about going all out and getting raid points. But I could not do it successfully. Ultimately, my mistakes proved costly.”

Rohit also took the opportunity to heap praise on his defensive unit, especially Ravinder Pahal. The right corner man has been the backbone of the Bulls’ defence and the team dearly missed him during his suspension.

Today, Pahal fetched four points for his team from five tackle attempts that kept the Titans’ attack at bay.

Rohit Kumar revealed that they went into the match brimming with confidence in their grappling unit with Pahal having returned.

“We were fully confident about the defence today and they did their job well. Ravinder is a great player. Seeing him we get more confident to attack because we have faith that he will man the defence well.”

A freelance journalist based in Kolkata who is a diehard Rafael Nadal fan. She is also extremely passionate about India’s progress in sports and hopes to throw light on India’s unsung sports heroes through her articles. When not screaming her lungs out in support of her favourite sports stars, she can be seen reading, watching movies or immersed in planning her next travel destination!